Hello, about ready to start my second kit, and boy do I like the looks of it, the pieces literally fall out of the die.

I have heard, adding a couple inches and/or balance tab to the rudder will help the plane, anyone done this? Anything else that would make it a better plane? Does the blackish burnt edges of the laser cut wood affect glue adhesion? Do I need to sand the stuff off?

I plan on using wood glue for most of the contruction, as little CA as possible, I want to intentionally slow my building down, not to mention I glue everything everywhere with CA and the fumes make me see pink elephants.

Hope she goes together as good as it looks, will have a bench tested magnum .46 on it, engine screams, should be a good combo.

Any advice appreciated, and yes, I did a search on somethin extra, but wanted to post anyway.

Mill

I just flew mine last weekend (maidian) AWESOME It is bulit stock powered Irving 53 swinging a 12.25x 3.75 haven't rung it out yet should be great extremely smooth flying a litle fast on landing however, you will no be disappointed in this one,,, Might what to cover with some better colors other than purple and white does kind of get turnred around in the sky Good luck

Hello,

this is one great plane, I have had mine for a year and I love it. I do however would do some additional items to it, that would be for more 3d.

first, make the rudder a lot larger then it is now, i added an inch on top but I want much more. Next winter, i plan on making the bottom an inch or two larger.
second, I would also say give it more elevator surface, but you don't need to much, i would say only counter weights.

make this plane as light as possible, and you'll love it.
I would recomment using ca glue, better for this type of construction, better glue joints and lighter. as with the black around the wood, don't worry about this, and don't need to sand it off.

there are no real good ways that i can see on getting this plane any lighter easily. they have done a great job with wood selection, and lightning holes through out the plane.

I have a os. 46fx engine on it. If you go with a lighter engine, I would think about butting the servos in the back for better response.

as crazie says, maybe think about the color scheme. i have purple and white on top, but have different colors on the bottom of the wing, it really helped out very much, i like this combo.


look around at some of the real good 3d slow flyers, and if your into this they will give you a good idea how to change some of the control surfaces. the ailerons are plenty.

GB

What I did was:

-Added a counter on top of the rudder. About 1 inch.

-I used the cable for the throttle but had a hard time soldering the cable to the threaded connector. When I stressed tested it it failed. So I pulled it out and replaced it with the Sullivan Flex Gold-N-Rods.

-Went with the Sullivan Flex Gold-N-Rods on the whole plane.

-Beefed up the landing gear area.

-Beefed up the tail wheel area, used a Sullivan tail wheel.

-Added brace under the wing sheeting half way between the leading edge and the spar. The sheeting is thin so this helps brace it.

Other than that it was a great plane to build.
Of course these mods are personal preference and the design looks very solid to me.

Good Luck
Bill

Having a tough time with the wing sheeting, sheeting is the worst damn thing about building I think. Cant keep it pressed down real well while glue is drying, and having a tough time getting a seamless joint with the LE.

Mill

You may have to resort to some thin CA to get that sheeting started. Just hold it in the correct place along the leading edge, and glue it to the leading edge with thin CA from a dropper. Once that edge is stuck down, you can use wood glue along the ribs & spar and then tape, clamp, or whatever method of holding you're using.

As far as the burnt edges of the laser cut parts go, the only place you'll have to worry about it is edges that covering will be stuck to, especially if you're using lighter colored or transparent covering.

One modification I would strongly recommend is the turtledeck. Either replace the balsa stringers with hardwood, such as spruce, or sheet it. 1/64 or 1/32 ply works great for that. Also, depending on how you plan to fly the plane, you might want to enlarge the control surfaces. With some slight enlargements, the SE can be turned into a 3d beast.

And I know you've got an engine in mind, but fwiw, I did discover a couple weeks ago with my friend's SE ARF, that an 1100mAh NiCd pack placed just in front of the 2nd to last former in the tail will perfectly balance out a 70 Surpass on the nose. :bananahea

Take a look at some of the mods made to the SE:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...hreadid=270048]

Thanks,

I am wondering if perhaps my thin CA is getting useless, it really, really does not seem to want to grip things, except my fingers, I tried to CA sheeting to the LE on one side, and it would just not hold, even with tight contact. Interesting. I had to wood glue and t-pin the whole sheet to the LE.

Also, with no rib jig tabs on the upper surface, when I sheet the bottom, I am woried about inducing some sort of warp, think that is a valid concern?

Wing seems incredibly light and well, weak. I cannot imagine it taking all the stress induced 3d stuff, I mean 1/4 inch BALSA main wing spars? Man. Even half of it being doubled to 1/2 by 1/4 seems really weak. And no rear spar, is a good amount of flex there.

Mill

Once you get all the sheeting on, you'll see the strength of the wing. I was just as skeptical with my Fazer wing, but it came out very strong.

As far as inducing a warp with the bottom sheeting, nothing to worry about. Once you've got that top sheeting glued on, that wing is going nowhere warp-wise. If it's straight now, it's gonna stay that way, and if it ain't, it's never gonna be. The sheeting from leading edge to spar is what lets you get away with 1/4" balsa spars. It provides a lot of strength.